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Hot in Cleveland aired from June 2010 until ? on TV Land.

Hot in Cleveland revolved around three fabulous L.A. women of a certain age who were best friends Melanie, Joy and Victoria (Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Wendie Malick). Their lives were changed forever when their plane -- headed to Paris for a girls-only celebration -- unexpectedly landed in Cleveland and they soon rediscovered themselves in a new 'promised land'. Loving their new home, the women found themselves living under one roof and battling the sassy caretaker Elka(Betty White) of the property they had rented.

A Review from Variety

Hot in Cleveland
(Series -- TV Land, Wed. June 16, 10 p.m.)
By BRIAN LOWRY

Filmed in Los Angeles by Hazy Mills and Sam-Jen Prods. in association with TV Land. Executive producers, Suzanne Martin, Sean Hayes, Todd Milliner, Lynda Obst, Larry W. Jones, Keith Cox; producer, Bob Heath; director, Michael Lembeck; writer, Martin;

Melanie - Valerie Bertinelli Joy - Jane Leeves Victoria - Wendie Malick Elka - Betty White

Best known for reruns of old series (and now some rather tawdry reality shows), TV Land's original comedy "Hot in Cleveland" -- down to the talent -- feels as though it could have been on a network lineup 20 years ago, which is surprisingly better than that sounds. Tartly written with good actresses in clearly defined roles, this sitcom hardly breaks new ground but unearths old gags in such unapologetic fashion that it proves reasonably good company. And what better timing than having the indomitable Betty White -- newly hot at nearly 90 -- throwing around "Golden Girls"-vintage one-liners?

Recently divorced author Melanie (Valerie Bertinelli) is en route to Paris with her pals Victoria (Wendie Malick), who spent the last 27 years starring on a soap called "The Edge of Tomorrow"; and Joy (Jane Leeves), a cynic who compares romantic comedies with "cellulite cures."

After an uncomfortable encounter with Melanie's ex-husband, the trio's plane is forced to make an emergency landing in Cleveland, where these jaded L.A. women instantly discover some Midwestern benefits beyond (for now, anyway) the chance to watch LeBron James play hoops.

"I haven't felt like a piece of meat in so long," Joy mutters, suggesting they have crossed into "a dimension where men hit on women their own age." Plus, the real estate goes for a relative pittance.

A not-entirely-convincing series of events ensue, including Melanie's whirlwind encounter with a handsome local (guest John Schneider). Before you know it, she's taken a new Ohio home, one that comes with a saucy old caretaker (White) who immediately refers to the Melanie and her pals as "whores."

OK, so this possibility of sex in a whole new (and less glamorous) city isn't the most artful way of placing these West Coast fish on dry land, but the "Green Acres"-like aspect of the premise has carefree potential in a refreshingly unassuming way. And despite the throwback feel, at least nobody tells Melanie to take things one day at a time.

Bertinelli is essentially the pilot's straight woman, with Malick having the showiest part and Leeves getting all the best lines. But provided that writer Suzanne Martin (like Leeves, a "Frasier" alum) can maintain the pithy patter concocted to get the ball rolling, TV Land might actually have a comedy on its nostalgia-flavored roster to help create some mildly fond new memories.

camera, Donald A. Morgan; production designer, Michael Hynes; editor, Ronald A. Volk; music, Ron Wasserman, Emerson Swinford; casting, Collin Daniel, Brett Greenstein. 30 MIN.

With: John Schneider.

A Review from The New York Times

Television Review | 'Hot in Cleveland'

Stay. Eat. Make Yourself at Home. Maybe Find a Man.

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: June 15, 2010

In an episode from the first season of “30 Rock,” Tina Fey’s schlumpy character, Liz Lemon, is delighted to discover that in Cleveland, she passes for a model. “You’re so skinny,” a complete stranger tells her. “You really should eat something.”

And that aperçu — that a size 10 is a size 2 in the Midwest — is the operating conceit of “Hot in Cleveland,” a sitcom on TV Land about three Los Angeles women of a certain age who start new lives in Cleveland. They are not there for the waters.

“I feel young and hot,” one says as they are ogled by men in a Cleveland bar. “Like they’re undressing me with their eyes — and not finding Spanx.”

This is the first original scripted comedy on TV Land, a network that was founded on reruns. So not surprisingly, “Hot in Cleveland” is a pastiche of classics — a little bit “Cheers” and “Frasier,” a little bit “The Golden Girls.” (The History channel could learn a lesson from TV Land: who wouldn’t watch a medley reel of Hitler, Stalin and Hirohito?)

The humor is familiar, and so is the cast: Betty White (“The Golden Girls”) is Elka, an astringent housekeeper; Valerie Bertinelli (“One Day at a Time”) plays Melanie, a writer depressed by divorce; Jane Leeves (“Frasier”) is Joy, a beautician and unmarried; and Wendie Malick (“Just Shoot Me”) is Victoria, an oft-divorced former soap opera star.

The three friends are on their way to Paris when their plane makes an emergency landing in Cleveland. As they enter a bar, men look up, buy them drinks and pull out their chairs.

“We appear to have landed in a dimension where men hit on women their own age,” Joy says. “We owe it to science to investigate.”

There is nothing particularly original about the series — “The Drew Carey Show” was set in Cleveland, and even the depiction of Cleveland as a Xanadu for single women comes secondhand — but novelty isn’t everything. There is also pleasure in this kind of female humor, even if it comes in well-worn jokes about sex, weight and aging. All four actresses are comfortable in their roles and in one another’s company.

The format may make “Hot in Cleveland” seem a bit creaky and old-fashioned, especially compared to other cable shows like “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” or newer network comedies like “Parks & Recreation” and “Modern Family,” both of which use the faux-documentary conceit that worked so well on “The Office.”

But it’s hard to argue that a new format makes for more contemporary comedy. No matter how much writers tweak the formula and stretch the cast, certain stereotypes prevail.

“Modern Family” seems bold because it includes a gay couple in the family mix, but the women’s roles are as actually as traditional as on “Leave It to Beaver.” One housewife is a neurotic, blond, all-American stay-at-home mom; the other is a fiery, sexy Colombian stay-at home mom.

Meanwhile, the heroines of “Hot in Cleveland” follow the model of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” whereby career women are single.

Melanie, who eased the pain of a bad marriage by writing a self-help book, follows her own advice and cashes in her frequent flier miles to go on a trip with her two best friends. Victoria’s daytime soap opera was recently canceled. Joy, who specializes in shaping the eyebrows of Hollywood stars, spots a photograph of Oprah Winfrey in the newspaper wearing someone else’s arch, and she realizes her most famous client is being plucked by another.

“Oh well,” she sighs. “At least I don’t have to pretend to like Maya Angelou anymore.”

One fun night in Cleveland persuades Melanie to stay there and start her life over — a staycation version of “Under the Tuscan Sun.” Her two friends decide that they too may be better off in a town where, as one puts it, “everyone is eating and no one is ashamed.”

This is not perhaps the most daring or avant-garde comedy on television, but there is nothing shameful about “Hot in Cleveland.” It’s actually kind of fun.

Hot in Cleveland

TV Land, Wednesday nights at 10, Eastern and Pacific times; 9, Central time.

Written by Suzanne Martin; Sean Hayes, Todd Milliner and Ms. Martin, executive producers. Produced by Hazy Mills Productions. WITH: Valerie Bertinelli (Melanie Moretti), Jane Leeves (Joy Scroggs), Wendie Malick (Victoria Chase) and Betty White (Elka Ostrovsky).

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: June 19, 2010
A television review on Wednesday about the new TV Land sitcom, “Hot in Cleveland,” referred incorrectly to the audience laughter heard on the show. It was from a live audience at the taping, not from a laugh track.

An Article from USA TODAY

TV Land's 'Hot in Cleveland' features four cool ladies

Updated 6/15/2010 10:24 PM |
By Bill Keveney, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — Hot in Cleveland, TV Land's first original sitcom (Wednesday, 10 p.m. ET/PT), speculates that age means one thing in Hollywood and another in the heartland.

"Cleveland, I suspect, is not as youth-obsessed as this culture we come from, where women of a certain age, we're just ignored," says Jane Leeves, who plays one of three L.A. friends who find a new world of admirers when their Paris-bound jet makes an emergency landing in Ohio.

Wendie Malick agrees but credits "it" girl Betty White— who plays the caretaker of the house where the three land — for helping change society's overall view.

"I keep saying (Betty) has given such a valentine to women everywhere because she has allowed us to come out and own who we are. ... If you want to show up every day with a smile on your face and a good attitude, chances are you can keep going as long as you want to."

White, pro that she is, just goes for the punch line: "It sure beats the alternative."

The Cleveland quartet, which also includes Valerie Bertinelli, clicks with an easy banter as they sit for an interview in the kitchen of the show's set.

The four have experience with successful sitcoms — Bertinelli in One Day at a Time, Leeves in Frasier, Malick in Just Shoot Me and White in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls— and appreciate being part of another one. "If you put all the years together that all four of us have been on television ... ," Bertinelli says, trying to conjure up a suitably large number.

Leeves says all were more drawn to the project when they heard about their prospective co-stars.

"For me, knowing these fabulous women (would take part), I was like, 'Omigosh, we're going to have such a good time,' " Leeves says. "We have this great chemistry."

Bertinelli, who plays author Melanie, says that translates to the screen.

"I loved it so much," she says of Cleveland's pilot, "and I can't imagine someone not liking it."

"I think it's great that she loves it, but when she keeps kissing the screen, it's going a little far," counters White, who is enjoying a career resurgence that featured a Saturday Night Live hosting gig.

"But it's you I'm kissing," says Bertinelli, whose fiancé, Tom Vitale, hails from Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. She calls the series "a love letter to Cleveland."

The actresses have previous connections. Ohio Wesleyan alum Malick, whose Victoria is a fading soap star, and Leeves, whose Joy is a celebrity eyebrow archer, spent a year together on Frasier. Bertinelli and Leeves are friends.

And all are fans of White's Golden Girls, a comedy that serves as a Cleveland antecedent, because both center on the bonds among four women. "We were like four points on the compass, and the audience knew us all so well that they waited for each reaction from each character," says White, a veteran of The King and Iand South Pacific at the Cleveland Playhouse.

"That's happening now, where the audience is sort of ahead of us on it," Leeves says.

"That feels so good," Bertinelli says.

"You can play into it," White says.

"And you do, darling," Leeves adds, timing her response for maximum laughter.

A Review from USA TODAY

'Hot in Cleveland' quartet is breezy, if not quite golden

Updated 6/16/2010 10:38 PM |
By Robert Bianco, USA TODAY

Leave it to TV Land to come up with a new sitcom that feels more like an old one than some of its old ones.

If that's not precisely a compliment, it's also not meant as a disqualifying insult. Hot in Cleveland looks old-fashioned and relies too heavily on jokes about age and the supposed different perceptions people have of it in Los Angeles and Cleveland. But most of the jokes are at least reasonably funny, and they're all well delivered by a gold-standard female quartet made up of Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick and the woman who may just be America's favorite TV senior citizen, Betty White.

Any comedy that gives us a chance to spend some quality time with four women like that is a welcome comedy, new or old. It would be nice if TV Land had come up with a show that felt fresher or made better use of its stars' talents, but until that show comes along, Hot will have to do.

First, though, you have to get past a premise that is stupid even for a genre that tends to view premises as necessary evils to be hurriedly established and then never spoken of again. Three best friends are on a plane to Paris when one of them, Bertinelli's Melanie, discovers her soon-to-be-ex on board with a new younger girlfriend. The plane makes an emergency landing in Cleveland, where Melanie decides to start life anew, with her two best friends in tow.

Apparently, the chief appeal of Cleveland to the sweet Melanie, the more cynical Joy (Leeves) and the blithely self-obsessed Victoria (Malick) — an actress who just lost her decades-long role on a daytime soap — is that the men there find them hot. "We appear to have landed in a dimension where men hit on women their own age," Joy explains. "We owe it to science to investigate."

Melanie rents a house that comes with a live-in caretaker, played by White with polished, cantankerous aplomb. Think of the trio as the new Golden Girls, with White now playing Sophia, and you get the drift.

The script paints the women too broadly while offering a few too many variations on the same youth-obsessed-culture themes. Still, darned if the women don't carry it off, at least well enough to bring you back for a second episode. And for TV Land, that's a new experience, indeed.

A Review from The LA Times

Television review: 'Hot in Cleveland' on TV Land

The cable network ventures into new territory: the original scripted series. This one, itself peopled with sitcom staples, is predictable, yet appealing. Kinda like the classic reruns on the network.

June 16, 2010|By Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times Television Critic

There is something in the evolution of many cable networks that echoes the beginnings of life on Earth, as from primordial ingredients something new begins to stir. The network begins with reruns or other acquired goods, clambers ashore with low-budget, low-commitment reality series, and finally, with original scripted material, stands erect and walks.

TV Land, which began by presenting "classic" television series packaged with a kind of ironic curatorial air, has passed through the reality stage, and Wednesday night it airs its first original scripted series, a situation comedy, "Hot in Cleveland," whose title seems itself designed to echo shows that have gone before — "WKRP in Cincinnati," "Hot L Baltimore" (a play first but also a series). Created and written by Suzanne Martin, who wrote for "Frasier" and "Ellen," and with Sean Hayes (from "Will and Grace," and since Sunday night an experienced host of the Tony Awards) one of the producers, it is much as you might predict, given the venue: shot with multiple cameras before a live studio audience, with laughs sweetened to taste; starring actors already famous from other, older sitcoms; and made to appeal to people no longer as young as they were, an audience raised on the very series that make up the rest of TV Land's programming day.

So here are Valerie Bertinelli, 50, eerily still the image of little Barbara Cooper from "One Day at a Time" (CBS, 1975-84); Jane Leeves, 49, Daphne from "Frasier" (NBC, 1993-2004); Wendie Malick, 59, best known for "Just Shoot Me!" (NBC, 1997-2003); and oldster-of-the-moment Betty White, 88, whose sitcom career began in 1953, only two years after the birth of "I Love Lucy," but who hit the heights with "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (CBS, 1970-77) and "The Golden Girls" (NBC, 1985-92), of which this is a kind of (mostly) younger variant.

The younger stars are semi-fabulous best friends flying from Los Angeles to Paris on an impulsive getaway when an emergency grounds them in Cleveland, where divorcing writer Bertinelli meets plumber John Schneider, 50 ("The Dukes of Hazzard," CBS, 1979-85) in a bar and decides, also impulsively, to stay. White, in a pink tracksuit, is the caretaker who comes with the house Bertinelli rents at some undisclosed low rate impossible to imagine in L.A., a house big enough, of course, to fit them all.

From the get-go, the jokes are almost all on the subject of age and aging body parts and, once the women arrive in the Midwest, about how great it is to be in a place where those things don't matter, or matter as much. "To think we spent all that time and effort and money trying to look 10 years younger and 10 pounds lighter," says Malick, a recently unemployed soap star now being offered grandma roles, "and all we had to do was crash-land in Cleveland."

An Interview with Wendie Malick
By Michael Fairman

August 16th, 2010 |
The Wendie Malick Interview – Hot in Cleveland

There’s a storm brewing on the season finale of the sitcom Hot in Cleveland, and the shows central characters and its fans, better take cover and prepare for one hell of a cliffhanger! For soap viewers, there is extra incentive to tune-in when Victoria Chase, played by Wendie Malick, prepares to head back to Los Angeles to try to win her long denied first Daytime Emmy. Malick’s Hot in Cleveland alter ego is a former soap diva, who is set to go head to head in the competition with All My Children’s Susan Lucci (Erica), except she can’t get to the ceremonies! Even La Lucci makes a guest appearance as herself during the episode, in a Daytime Emmy send-up that will surely leave you laughing.

On-Air On-Soaps caught up with Malick for details into the hilarious episode, working with Susan Lucci, creating her own fictional soap legend, and working with her Hot in Cleveland co-stars, including former B&B guest-star Betty White. Wendie is such an accomplished actress from stage, primetime drama, and comedy that you will find her praise for the daytime genre enlightening. Malick’s blend of dry humor, wit, and panache that she brought to our conversation make this quite the entertaining interview.

Hot in Cleveland airs this Wednesday night on TV Land 10PMEST /9CST, and don’t miss what could be in Elka’s (Betty White) secret storm cellar! Could it be soap icons from the past? Hmmm. Wendie won’t tell, but she does give us a look into the creation of her fictional soap actress’ life and much more!

MICHAEL: The soap opera angle of your character on Hot in Cleveland, Victoria Chase, is such a hilarious spoof. I love it.

WENDIE: I lobbied heavily for this when they told me she was going to be an aging actress. I said, “Yes, I want to do that.” It sort of parallel’s things we all actually are going through. Of course, it’s an exaggerating version of our lives at a tender age, which is way more fun. (Laughs)

MICHAEL: I was digging into Victoria Chase’s background and bio and I see she appeared on the long running, now defunct soap, Edge of Tomorrow, in the role of Honor Saint Raven.

WENDIE: Yes, she was on Edge of Tomorrow. And, I remember Edge of Night was on when I was a kid. I gave her the name Honor Saint Raven, which I have had in my back pocket for many years, which I think is the most hilarious name I could come up with. It’s sort of a complete bastardization of every ridiculous name you have heard on daytime television. (Laughs).

MICHAEL: That has to be partially based on one of the leading female characters on Edge of Night throughout its last years, Raven, formerly played by Sharon Gabet, which is really funny. Now, Victoria was on Edge of Tomorrow for decades, correct?

WENDIE: Yes. She was on it for 27 years and she started out as the ingénue. (Laughs) Then she was one of identical triplets, so she was the good sister. Then there was the evil triplet-sister and then an ‘evilah’ triplet sister (laughs), who was named Magnolia, and she was from the south. (Laughs)

MICHAEL: Wendie, what soaps did you watch previously, besides Edge of Night?

WENDIE: As a kid I watched Edge of Night and All My Children whenever I could. My parents would not let us watch television in the afternoons, or even Peyton Place, or any of those wonderfully juicy things. We would have to sneak around to watch them. My first job in television was in New York as an under-five on All My Children, and I was beyond thrilled and excited. Shortly after that, my first real acting job was on Search for Tomorrow and I played Nurse Jones. It was canceled six months after I was on it, and it was dying a slow and painful death. I remember as Nurse Jones I had no first name and all I would do was recap what happened the day before. I had to wear the stupid nurse’s outfit/uniform including the stocking and the shoes everyday, and it was so not what I had in mind. (Laughs)

MICHAEL: How was working with Susan Lucci? How does she figure into the plot on Wednesday night’s season finale?

WENDIE: I had never met her. I heard she was wonderful to work with, and she just looked so ridiculously good. She has been doing All My Children for 40 years! We had to wear identical dresses, and of course, hers was half the size of mine. (Laughs) She was a total pro and came in and nailed it every time. Susan was charming and lovely, and happy to be there. She was a really good sport because we abused her lot, as she is my character, Victoria Chase’s, arch nemesis. Now Victoria is the longest running daytime actress who has never won a Daytime Emmy, as she has been on her soap for 27 years without capturing the prize.

MICHAEL: I see. So that is why Victoria would be up in the running for the Daytime Emmy this year because her soap was recently canceled, and so she could make it into the eligibility period. (Laughs) Then, for those who don’t know, how did all the ladies in the show end up in Cleveland…which is the premise for the sitcom?

WENDIE: What happened was: my character’s (Victoria) show was canceled, Valerie Bertinelli’s character’s (Melanie) divorce became final, and Jane Leeves character’s (Joy) business was going down the tubes, and she was losing clients in the eyebrow sculpting business! So we all decided at Melanie’s suggestion, that we all get out of Dodge and go to Paris, where elder women are appreciated like fine wine. Then on our way we hit bad weather and landed in Cleveland, and decided to stay there because we can be fabulous there. Because, we are really hot in Cleveland! (Laughs)

MICHAEL: Since you watched Susan Lucci as Erica on All My Children, I would think that must have been kind of cool for you to get the chance to work with her.

WENDIE: Absolutely, she is the face of daytime. Susan plays the beautiful, and then sometimes evil, and then a character that sometimes goes through redemption as Erica Kane. Susan Lucci has gone through all of it, and she has done it and held on to herself. It seems like Susan has also really had a life, and a nice family, and figured out how to have it all. Bless her heart, and she is still doing it all amazingly!

MICHAEL: So, a tornado hits Cleveland and Victoria’s dreams of being at the Emmys to possibly accept her big award are destroyed?

WENDIE: Of course! And apparently right now, they are really all over the Midwest. It’s narly back there! Anyway, Victoria is getting ready to go to the Daytime Emmys and then a tornado hits. I mean, what kind of luck is that? And she truly thinks she has a shot this year, because she faked a rare disease to get sympathy votes. (Laughs)

MICHAEL: So in Victoria Chase’s off-screen life she is saying this, not unlike the year at the Academy Awards when Elizabeth Taylor won the sympathy vote for being ill and took home the Oscar for Butterfield 8, when every one assumed it would go to Shirley MacClaine for The Apartment?

WENDIE: Yup! So she is going for it anyway she can. She will stop at nothing to win this award.

MICHAEL: Victoria is up against Susan Lucci for the Lead Actress Daytime Emmy?

WENDIE: She is up against Lucci, and against Kristen Macalister who pulled a really sneaky move… she died! And so then, you might as well get an express ticket to winning. It’s a cheap shot! So Victoria’s way of being in the competition is to fake a really awful rare deadly disease. Then I get stuck in Cleveland in a tornado, and then I have to watch it on TV when the power comes back on. (Laughs)

MICHAEL: Will we see you and Susan Lucci together on screen?

WENDIE: No. You will see her on television, and me in the basement in the same dress.

MICHAEL: I know there is a big cliffhanger on Wednesday night’s episode!

WENDIE: There are two cliffhangers in the season finale. The cliffhanger revolving around the Emmys will be revealed that night. Then there is something else that goes on after that, which really leaves all of us in the dark until next season. Our new season begins in January. The something else that is really serious is something that is about one of the other ladies in the cast, but I shan’t say who!

MICHAEL: You know your castmate Betty White (Elka) has appeared on the CBS soap, The Bold and the Beautiful…

WENDIE: Did she really? She never told me!

MICHAEL: On B&B, Betty White played Ann Douglas, a completely mean spirited mother figure that emotionally damaged her two daughters, in more ways than one. Last year, the soap “killed-off” her character. Ann died of pancreatic cancer in a short arc “dying with dignity” storyline, which just won B&B the Outstanding Writing Daytime Emmy. Betty showed a side of her, which is nothing like the comedienne she plays on Hot in Cleveland. Many in the soap industry thought she should have received a Daytime Emmy nod for those performances.

WENDIE: Isn’t that fabulous that she is still pushing the envelope and still stretching as an actress? She is absolutely remarkable! I must tell you in all seriousness, being women in our second act and doing this show has been a great shot in the arm for women who don’t have to feel like their days are over. Some people would say, “Oh, that was fun. Now I have to crawl under a rock. Now what do I do?” It’s really up to each of us and the attitude we choose to have. Betty White is this living example of someone who shows up everyday with this sense of gratitude, and leaves it all on the mat, and has this great time doing it and loves her life. It’s contagious. We all feel so lucky to being doing the thing we love, with people we adore, and these seasoned fabulous writers, and this great crew. It’s kind of like coming home, and it’s such a gift to work on this show.

MICHAEL: How is working with Valerie Bertinelli?

WENDIE: I had never met her. I remembered Valerie from the sitcom, One Day at a Time, when she was so young, and I thought, “Well, I don’t know if we would make sense as friends because I am from a different generation, and I am much more snarky.” (Laughs) But, I remember everyone telling me, “She has been through a lot. You are going to like her.” And, I must say she is a very solid performer. She is an amazing woman who has made huge strides in her life in terms of her own personal growth. Valerie has still got a great body and a great sense of humor.

MICHAEL: And, how about Jane Leeves?

WENDIE: Jane Leeves I adore. She plays such a dry witted character on the show, which I just love. Jane and I got to know each other on Frasier. I played her mother-in-law. My character married John Mahoney’s character of Marty Crane, and she married David Hyde Pierce’s character of Niles!

MICHAEL: You know when I was reading Victoria Chase’s bio, it says the following: “She has five ex-husbands, three adopted children (she didn’t want to ruin her figure) and one grandchild. She still suspects her third spouse may have been gay.”

WENDIE: I don’t know too much about Victoria’s former husbands. The writers actually came to us at the end of the season and said, “So, what do you guys want us to look at in terms of next season?” And I said, “I would love to know who my children are, and what happened to them, and where did they come from? (Laughs)”

MICHAEL: So she suspects her third husband was gay?

WENDIE: Yes, she suspects after they hop into bed to have sex, and there is this great talk about stretch marks.

MICHAEL: Do you think the powers-that-be at Hot in Cleveland will do another episode with a soap angle for Victoria? They should keep this going.

WENDIE: I wouldn’t be surprised. She was offered a job to be the drama coach at the local high school. She said she would fill in for awhile, but as soon as that phone rings with a real gig she is out there. So, I have a feeling if the phone rings she would go back to L.A. for a brief visit, and work on a soap, perhaps.

MICHAEL: Why not do some great cross-promotion between TV Land and the network soaps, and have Victoria Chase as Honor hit town… like do a cameo on All My Children?

WENDIE: Oh yes, and have her eat up the scenery. Just passing through Pine Valley… “Is that Honor Saint Raven? What is she doing here? I thought she was dead!” Oh, the possibilities! (Laughs)

MICHAEL: Do you think that in your neck of the woods of primetime television, that soap operas are perceived as the “poor step children” of the acting profession?

WENDIE: You know, I don’t watch them because I don’t watch that much television, because I am usually working. Then when I am done I have dinner with my husband, and we have a niece who lives with us, too. So my life is full, but I do Tivo a few shows. I must say, I never watch any Reality TV, ever! I hate reality. I like make-believe. So, I have never seen American Idol, or any of that stuff. I thought that sitcoms were dead, and here we are with Hot in Cleveland, and the little engine that could. So, I don’t think you should ever rule out anything. It seems that there are some really talented performers who go back to working on soaps, because they get to stay in town, and have a normal life and do what they love. I think there is a hunger for scripted television now that we have been so inundated with reality programming. I have a feeling there will be a resurgence of a lot of the scripted shows.

MICHAEL: There were awful sitcoms there for awhile. They were so bad they all got canceled, and rightfully so.

WENDIE: There were horrible sitcoms coming out. You really need to have good writers because without them, you are completely faking it and the audience can tell. We have a waiting list of writers that want to write on our show. We have to actually edit out the laughter! So it’s not like we add in any… they have to subtract it! It’s a nice position to be in.

MICHAEL: You know, soap actors have the daunting task of shooting their performances in one day and that’s it. They then move on to the next day’s performance with so little time to prep.

WENDIE: My hat goes off to those who work in soap operas. They have to be on their game, and they have to learn so many lines every day that it is astonishing. I remember you would have 20 pages of dialog in a day. You would have to show up and know what you were doing, and there is no time to really rehearse. I mean, it is fast! So the people who do well on soaps and can nail it have done so much shorthand before they have gotten to actual episodic television or sitcoms. It’s amazing how fast they have to work!

MICHAEL: What is Hot in Cleveland’s production week like from an actor’s perspective? I think its good to look at how your medium’s work week is structured to pull off what you do, as a comparison to what the soaps have to do on a daily basis.

WENDIE: We rehearse from 10am-2pm on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The thing with this show is; we have great writers, and they are always reworking the lines and fine tuning it and so every day there are script changes. But they have gotten so good this season that none of the episodes were that difficult to do. There was only one I think that got truly changed from Monday till Friday. We rehearse for three days, and then do a run- through. Then, the writers go back and re-work the script, and then on Thursday, we go in early and pre-tape some things that are not on the main set, or special effects, or tricky stuff, or prosthetics! I won’t go into that, but I have something like that at the end! (Laughs). Friday, we come in around noon and pre-shoot the show with the cameras, just to see if there are any odd camera angles they need to get. Then that night at 6:30pm, we have the audience there. We shoot in front of them, and I have to say, I love shooting in front of a live audience.

MICHAEL: The infamous and hilarious still photo of you and Susan Lucci fighting for the Emmy in the identical blue dress… when did you shoot that?

WENDIE: Susan came that night of the taping, and she did not even have to because she shot her material on pre-tape the night before. Susan said to the producers, “I would love to come to it live that night in front of the audience.” So, she did her part again, and came out in front of the audience, and they were so thrilled to see her. It was wonderful! So that night is when we did the photo opportunity of us in the same blue dress fighting for the Emmy… and we giggled the whole week! She was like “Little-me!” (Laughs)

MICHAEL: So Wendie, with all the storylines Victoria Chase’s soap character (Honor Saint Raven) played on Edge of Tomorrow, do you think there is something left for her on the soap to still play, if the show would have not been canceled?

WENDIE: Well, I know she was researching monkeys on a small island for a while. (Laughs)

MICHAEL: Very Gorillas in the Mist!

WENDIE: I don’t think there is anything they didn’t squeeze out of the 27 years she played that character, or anything she has left to revisit. Maybe, she could be a grandmother someday, but she wouldn’t like that very much. (Laughs)

MICHAEL: As we wrap, why do you think soap fans should tune-in to the finale of Hot in Cleveland?

WENDIE: I think they will get a kick out of it, because it’s truly an homage to all the daytime fans.

An Article from Entertainment Weekly

Dec 12 2011 10:00 AM ET

Betty White to reunite with 'Mary Tyler Moore' co-star Ed Asner on 'Hot in Cleveland' -- EXCLUSIVE
by Tanner Stransky

Mary Tyler Moore fans, here’s a reason to get excited: Lou Grant and Sue Ann Nivens are reuniting!

EW has exclusively learned that Mary Tyler Moore co-stars Betty White and Ed Asner will appear in an episode of TV Land’s Hot in Cleveland that’s slated to air in the sitcom’s batch of new episodes next summer. The half-hour will shoot in February. Cleveland‘s third season recently premiered, on Nov. 30.

There are currently no details about what kind of role Asner will play on the show, but you can probably expect a wink or two to the pair’s time on Mary Tyler Moore. These kind of old-sitcom reunions are not unusual on Cleveland: White appeared with Mary Tyler Moore in the series’ second-season premiere back in January.

The show’s other principal cast have also seen reunions with their old sitcom cohorts: Valerie Bertinelli with One Day at a Time co-star Bonnie Franklin and Jane Leeves with Frasier co-star John Mahoney (who’s also returning this season). Wendie Malick will share the screen with her Just Shoot Me! co-star Laura San Giacomo in the series’ upcoming Dec. 14 episode.

Asner recently starred in the CMT sitcom Working Class, which premiered to strong ratings, but was canceled after just one season.

UPDATE: Asner will be playing the role of Jameson Lyons, the president of the an old-money country club in Cleveland. When the ladies try to get in to the club, it’s revealed that Elka (White) has a long history with Jameson and tries to avenge something from their past.

To watch some clips from Hot in Cleveland go to http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hot+in+cleveland+episodes&aq=f

For a Page dedicated to Hot in Cleveland go to http://timvp.com/hotincleveland.html

For a Website dedicated to Jane Leeves go to http://jane-leeves.myrealm.co.uk/

To listen to the theme song of Hot in Cleveland go to http://www.televisiontunes.com/Hot_in_Cleveland.html and for the ending theme song go to http://www.televisiontunes.com/Hot_In_Cleveland_-_Ending.html